That's What I Like About the South

Drum Roll, please...... Next year we'll be living (and working!) in TRIVANDRUM, India.  Trivandrum is the capital of the state of Kerala,a state known for its extremely high literacy rate (>90%), Communist Party affiliations, and all the beautiful beaches, waterways, tea plantations, beautiful scenery.  We're here this week for a look-see, and we like what we've seen.  Here are more photos of our new home:    http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEvgAP2  Check out Trivandrum on a map; it's almost exactly at the bottom of this vast sub-continent.  If we floated away in a southern direction I don't believe there's anything to stop us until Antarctica.

My goal is to be like the coconut wallah in this photo: feet up, relaxed and carefree.  Let's see how that works out.  Tomorrow we are taking the train up the coast to a city called Thrissur, where I'll be doing some workshops at a conference.  We decided on the train rather than the quick flight so we could check out the very green scenery of the state.  The first full day we were here S. and I thought we gave ourselves a mini-sun stroke not because we were intentionally out in the sun very long, but our bodies were just not ready for the level of heat + humidity.  It's probably a higher temperature in Jaipur, Rajasthan now, but there is almost no humidity, so it's bearable.  This climate will be different and I think I will have to channel the coconut wallah so as not to over extend myself.
We ate fish in coconut curry last night and I could eat that for about a year and not get tired of it.  I also got a cookbook of Keralan cooking and I"m looking forward to having a kitchen and trying some of them.  We're looking at a couple of apartments today, both with kitchens!
We're not sure when we're coming here because we could either go back to the States for a month mid-July or wait for a certain family wedding and then perhaps go back then.  Either way we're headed here in the summer, and I hope just before a 10-day festival a future colleague told me the whole state celebrates.  I'm glad to learn we're moving to a place that knows how to celebrate.